McCain defends vote on 'Glades funds

Senator aims to stay visible in Florida

LAKE BUENA VISTA — Two days after his opponent locked up the Democratic nomination, Republican John McCain came to Orlando to raise more money and keep his name and face in front of Florida voters.

McCain spent part of Thursday afternoon talking to newspaper editors from around the state. Earlier, he attended a fundraiser that had a minimum entry fee of $2,300 per person. One organizer said McCain could rake in upward of $3 million during his three-day trip. He ended his day at a fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale.

To the editors, he defended his decision to oppose a $2 billion Everglades restoration project, saying the plan was lumped into a massive spending plan riddled with projects he could not support.

Had the Everglades proposal been a stand-alone bill, he said, he would have voted for it.

"I am committed to the preservation of the Everglades," said McCain, who is scheduled to visit the Everglades today. "I will do whatever is necessary to do so."

The longtime Arizona senator has made controlling spending a major part of his presidential bid. He has promised to put an end to "earmarks," the local, often expensive, projects that federal lawmakers slip into bills to please the folks back home. McCain said he would veto those bills and embarrass the lawmakers behind them.

"I'd make them famous," McCain said. "You would know their names, you would know their projects. That's the great strength of the presidency of the United States."

McCain has come to Florida 17 times since January, eager to collect its 27 electoral votes in the fall election. With its army of ex-military and older voters, the state has been friendly territory for the former Navy pilot, and his primary win here in January made him his party's front runner. He has been endorsed by Gov. Charlie Crist and has allowed Crist's name to circulate as a possible vice presidential candidate.

Recent national polls show McCain trailing Democrat Barack Obama by a few percentage points, but in Florida, McCain is up by 8, according to RealClearPolitics.com. McCain on Thursday said little about his Democratic opponent apart from pointing out votes on which they had differed.

Despite McCain's primary victory here, the state isn't a slam dunk for the Republican nominee.

Two years ago, he supported an immigration reform package detested by many Florida conservatives. He also opposes a national catastrophic insurance fund, an idea that state leaders, including Crist, say could cut the price of insurance.

Obama's strategists aren't about to let voters forget that.

On Thursday, about an hour before McCain met with editors, they spoke in a conference call with U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and state Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, to blast McCain's position.

"We got in this mess, really, because we had too many Republicans in the state of Florida following the insurance industry position that the best way to solve this crisis is to allow the market to solve it, by essentially allowing rates to skyrocket," Gelber said.